For former state Sen. Al Coppola, running for the 60th District Senate seat he won and lost back in 2000 has become almost second nature. After defeating Niagara County Legislator Renae Kimble in a special election held in February of that year, he lost the seat just seven months later to Byron Brown, who went on to become the mayor of Buffalo.
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He lost to Brown again while running on minor party lines that November, and was defeated by Brown again in 2002 and 2004. In 2006, after Brown resigned from the Senate, Coppola ran against his cousin, incumbent Marc Coppola, and Antoine Thompson, who was Brown's handpicked successor. The vote was badly split and Thompson emerged victorious.
And although he sat out the 2008 campaign, there were few political observers of any stripe who would say that Al Coppola wasn't game.
Coppola said that a number of factors, including general voter dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Albany, led him to try for his old seat once again.
"It's all or nothing," Coppola told the Niagara Falls Reporter over lunch recently. "This year, everywhere I go, it seems that the only thing people want to hear is that you're not the incumbent."
Once again, Coppola finds himself locked in a three-way race, facing both Thompson and political newcomer Rory Allen.
"I don't think Antoine's support is at the same level it has been in the past," he said. "For one thing, I don't think he's going to get the support from the ministers in either Buffalo or Niagara Falls, because of his stance on the abortion issue. I've said many times that I am firmly opposed to abortion, and that's always been a part of my campaigns."
Additionally, the trade union support Thompson long enjoyed has evaporated this year. Just last week, the Buffalo Building and Trades Council, which represents 18 separate union locals here, withdrew its support of Thompson on the grounds that he waffled on legislation concerning the University of Buffalo that would have resulted in as many as 9,000 construction jobs.
Recent revelations about Thompson's constituent mailings, which cost taxpayers $480,000 over the past year, have also turned off many voters, Coppola said.
"In these times, when people are struggling just to keep their heads above water, this kind of spending on what amounts to nothing more than political self-promotion is unconscionable," Coppola said.
Coppola added that Niagara Falls has been hit harder than most Western New York municipal authorities by a lack of effective representation in Albany.
"The thing about both Antoine and Francine Del Monte is that neither of them has ever run a business," he said. "They don't understand how hard it is to run a business."
Coppola ran a bar and restaurant for 18 years in Buffalo, until construction of the Metro Rail line there forced him out of business, an experience he describes as heartbreaking.
"I had to lay off 12 people. It broke my heart," he said. "I was going through some hard times after that. Francine never had to experience a setback like that, and neither has Antoine. And the more people we have like that in elected office, the less understanding there is about how we have to be competitive with the other states. New York is simply not competitive."
As for Allen, Coppola charged that state Assemblyman Sam Hoyt convinced him to run in order to split the white vote in the district.
"It's an old political game and one that I've seen going back to when I was on the Buffalo Common Council," he said.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Aug. 31, 2010 |